First, there was The World, after The World came the realms, then the first dreamer created The Dream and from his death came The Nightmare. In a desperate attempt from those exiled by the dreamers from The Dream to not fall into The Nightmare, they did their best to recreate The Dream, yet what came out was such an inferior copy that almost all of them lost their destiny ranking.
It was called The Lesser Dream and it was what ruined the dreamless, but for them it was their only Hope...
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Lan scoffed upon reading the barrier's karma "A desperate attempt by weaklings to defy their fate... but I can respect their struggle." Lan looked towards the wall "However, it's your creation that is keeping me here right now, so I'll have to destroy it. It's simply your misfortune that I fell here when I came into this world... or maybe I don't"
A portal opened next to Lan and he stared at it. From the portal came #### a member of the #### race. The #### are a race of sentient feelings and they are born when a large number of living beings feel that feeling in one place.
Lan glared at #### "To think a Bhor was born here, although it does make sense."
#### was surprised "You can speak our language?"
Lan simply scoffed "You think a chosed such as I would be unable to speak the language of pure feelings? Do I seem that pathetic to you, Hope?"
This time, Hope wasn't as surprised "No, I apologise, Divine."
"Is this your idea of a joke? You think you can just speak my name in your language without any consequences?" Lan was enraged. What Hope just did wasn't just a simple translation of Lan's name; it was akin to trying to drag his name down from its true ancient and divine state to just a feeling.
"Of course not, that was not my intention; I was just a bit angry." Hope started explaining "I placed you here hoping you would save this world-" but he was interupted.
"WORLD?! You call this place a world? It's falling apart as we speak, just because I killed a few lords, actually not even lords, they were barely enough to meet half of the standard for my story, even when put together with a monster tide." Lan was livid but then quickly calmed down; it was clear Hope didn't understand what type of place they were protecting.
"Then why did you introduce more hope to this place?" Hope asked, clearly confused. "You could have just ignored this place and ascended to the Karmic Child realm by killing all the nightmare monsters."
"You still don't understand? First of all, I would never ascend with such a weak story. Second, this place is so far below me that it's not even funny." Lan explained and in a quiet whisper, added "And also makes me stupid for trying to do what I'm about to do." Lan shook his head "Anyways, did you really not notice? My ascension is not complete."
Hope's eyes(?) opened wide "You wouldn't! This place contains Innocent beings you can't destroy it just for a mere story!"
"What did I expect from a Bhor? You really don't understand Karma." Lan shook his head "This place isn't even real. All of this is a mere recreation; all the real beings in this place died a long time ago, now it's just looping forever. Not to mention, when did I say I was going to destroy it?" Lan looked towards the wall behind him and then turned back to Hope
Hope was at a loss for words "This place isn't real? Then what have I been protecting all this time?"
"A legacy." Lan answered "A place so full of destiny that with a miracle you can even transform this place into something else, something better" Lan grinned.
"So what will you do? Be a slave to Fate? Or will you carve out a Destiny for yourself?"
Hope paused for a moment and then looked Lan in the eyes "You mean that we can save this place?"
"Of course we can, I know that I may be arrogant at times, but I'm not a monster. How could I just ignore the suffering the souls of the past are all going through in the nightmare-ish loop of this dream?" Lan sighed "This is why their plan would never work, the first dreamer's death made it so dreams and nightmares are inseparable and their nightmare is this loop. If they tried to make a realm that only imitates the functions of The Dream instead of making this inferior copy that they tried to get as close as possible, they might have had a chance."
The Dream will always be corroded by The Nightmare, that's the consequence of being The World's mirror.
Hope looked at Lan and asked "How do you even know all of this? Aren't you from the outside?"
A slight memory flashed in Lan's eyes a figure in white, obscured by great karma "I don't know exactly, however, I do know that someone helped me. I didn't remember before, but I do remember a slight bit of it now. Anyways, we're getting sidetracked. I am going to create a great story, and with your help, it will be even grander. Did you know feelings can affect karma?"
"Well, anyway, hope you can keep up, Hope. It's time to destroy a dream and create something beautiful." Lan grinned "And yes, that pun was intended"
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They arrived at the place Lan first appeared when he was drawn into the lesser dream.
"We're here." Lan said, looking towards Hope.
"This place?" Hope was confused as a being not on the karmic pathway; they could not see the irregularity of its karmic pull.
"Did you think it was a coincidence that I appeared here when you pulled me in here? No, it was not. My existence itself is special; not many places in this poor imitation can handle my existential weight piercing through the barrier. So only the core, which is the most stable, could contain it and not collapse immediately after."
Hope didn't understand but nodded like he did. Lan, in turn, looked at him like he was stupid. "You Bhor really don't know how to hide your emotions. Nodding with a confused face doesn't inspire much confidence that you understood, you know."
Lan shook his head "Anyways, I'm going to need your help opening the core. My ascension is not yet complete, so I cannot use most of the abilities yet and you're kinda connected to it, therefore it should be easier if you do it."
"What am I supposed to do exactly?" Hope asked
Lan sighed "The core of this place contains a lot of hope energy. You just need to focus on it and open an entrance through your connection."
Hope focused for a bit and quickly grasped the feeling and a swirling portal, purple in colour, started opening under them
Lan looked at the portal and was shocked for a brief second before calming himself and glancing at Hope for a bit before looking at the portal again with a complicated look on his face 'This place has one surprise after another... to think I would underestimate someone this much.. am I getting too prideful? No, surely not, I am acting exactly according to my divine providence, it's all fine.'
Hope finished opening the portal and with Lan glancing at the Bhor for one final time, he jumped in.